Colorado voters added it to the state constitution in 2000, but they’ve only actually gotten the benefits of the Senior Homestead Exemption in four years since then.

With House Bill 1287, Rep. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, asked a simple question: Should every senior qualify for the property tax break?

The tax break is applied to 50 percent of the first $200,000 of a home’s assessed value. However, a senior over 65 must have lived in his or her home for the last 10 years.

Critics say this provision punishes seniors who may have lived in Colorado all their lives but who have downsized to a smaller home in their twilight years. And they point out that there is no means test for the tax break, meaning people who own ski chalets in the mountains get it for their homes, but poor seniors who may be renting cannot get it.

Gov. John Hickenlooper today recommended an $18.7 billion 2012-13 budget, a spending plan that puts him on a collision course with House Republicans over a property tax break for seniors that costs the state nearly $100 million a year.

The proposed 2012-13 budget is the first the Democratic governor’s administration has written from scratch since he took office in January, and while it would impose more cuts on education, the reductions would not be nearly as large as those the last two years.

“As you will see, the budget reflects the ongoing work of closing the state’s structural budget gap and funding the demands of numerous federal and state constitutional requirements,” Hickenlooper wrote in a letter to the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee. “The proposal also contains several proposals to protect the most vulnerable Coloradans, promote economic growth, continue needed reforms in education and modernize state government.”

The “structural gap” is about a $1 billion difference between what the state regularly takes in and what it spends, and the state closed about half the distance last year through cuts, mostly to education.

Hickenlooper’s proposed 2012-13 budget also would mark the fourth year in a row without salary increases for state workers.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.